Voicemail

[izzyalienqueen]

Hi! You've reached Isabel Evans. I'm not here right now. You know what to do at the beep.

Comments

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

A quick glance at the caller ID as she opened the phone had Isabel smiling. "Hey! How's LA?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Hey. L.A. is fine. It's a retreating dot in the rear-view mirror, but it's fine. I'm just calling to let you know where Zero's body will be buried, in case of emergency." Parker grinned into the phone and added, "And how are you?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Enjoy the fun that is Fandom. The teachers took out the evil bitch last night, so there's much celebrating," she explained, settling back on her bed. "Do I want to know why you're going to kill Zero?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Cool. River said she was gone when I talked to her earlier, but no details. I'm glad the teachers stepped up to take care of it. You never ran into her, did you?" Parker shook her head with a resigned sigh. "Zero's talked me into a trip to the desert. Black Rock, Nevada, to be precise."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"If I said yes, are you going to come back here and hit me?" Isabel asked. "She thought she was all scary, but honestly? I've dealt with worse." Time's helped make those memories a little bit easier to deal with. She shrugged them off, then started to laugh when she realized where she'd heard that name before. Amy Deluca was full of stories. "How the hell did she convince you of that?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Do I have to?" Parker asked, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, just because you've had worse, there's no reason to step into the range of fire of crazy people, is there? I hope you had a good reason." She made faces at the phone as Isabel laughed, and said, "She says there's a spa!"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Maybe? Mostly I just wanted to see the crazy in person. Which, yeah, I know. Stupid reason." She sighed and waited for the yelling. "She whammied me with some spell on my eyes that made me uncomfortable as hell for a night, but Wyatt healed it for me."

"A spa? At Burning Man? I'm sure it's five star." Isabel really wished she could fly out just watch for a day or two. Maybe Bel could shimmer her.

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Isabel," Parker said, coming down hard on the last syllable. "God! I swear you're going to give me another ulcer. I'm glad you're okay now, but sheesh. No more! Bah."

"And evidently? I don't know. There's fire, there's art, there's desert, there's hippies. There may be a homicide." Parker sounded almost cheerful about it. "I've been promised a good time or my money back, and Zero knows better than to make that kind of promise to me if she has to pay off."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"She's gone. It's moot. But I promise I'll try and stay out of trouble. I don't want to be responsible for your stomach lining."

It was all she could do not to laugh. Amy's stories usually involved mud. And the weird places she slept. "Zero can afford to pay you off if she has to. Just keep an open mind. It's going to be a new experience for you."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"This does not fill me with confidence. A week there, and I may get sunstroke and sunburn and ... honestly. I'll try, there's a spa to retreat to. I'll try a lot for that. But still." Parker contemplated that a moment, then said, "So, anything going on with you that I'd be happy to hear about, not appalled?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

The whole place was going to be a spa. A nice hot sun room. But Isabel wasn't about to tell Parker that. "There's a lunar eclipse Tuesday morning, starting around 3 or so in the morning. You'll be in a good spot to watch it." No electricity meant no lights, so she'd get a good show.

"I spent some time with Anders the other night. He came by while my eyes were all screwed up and kept me company. And then last night I just hung out in the common room with Peter and Marco watching Iron Chef and then bad Sci-Fi movies."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Phoebe and Bel ship out soon, don't they? I'll need to give Daisy a call, check on how he's doing." Parker moved on from that to the more interesting topic presented by Isabel's last comment. "So? How is Steeeeeve Peter? Anything new? You're not leaving any time soon, so..."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"The end of the week. I made him promise to come here when they leave. I'll look out for him and make sure he doesn't do anything silly like try to drink his way through Caritas."

Shaking her head, Isabel shrugged even though Parker couldn't see it. "So what? He was glad to see I was back."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"He broke his leg, last time he drank away his troubles," Parker remembered, exasperated all over again. "I'm going to get Zero to call him too. Sheesh. Yeah. Food and baseball and some of his fanfiction to distract him 'til the first missing-them passes." Then she paused. "So what? So nothing? So something? Soooo?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"We did baseball before I left," Isabel smiled. "It was fun. Crackerjacks, and peanuts and home team won. We'll be into the playoffs soon enough. Hopefully that'll be a good distraction."

"So something. Maybe. But I'm not going to jinx it by talking about it," she laughed, knowing it would drive Parker insane.

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Good. And there'll be school, and new people to confuse, even if it's only accidentally in Daisy's case, more often than not." Parker pouted at the phone. "Isssssabel. No. C'mon. Don't tell me nothing's happening! What's wrong with this boy? Seriously!"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'll thwap him if necessary," Isabel promised. "Just to keep him in line."

"Paaarrkeeeer!!!! I didn't say nothing. I said something! I just didn't say what that something was."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Good." And then a beat: "Oh, COME ON!"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

The thing was, it was something, but it wasn't much of a something. But it was still something that made Isabel smile.

"Okay, the truth? When he stopped by to see me after I got back? We fell into bed and stayed there for three days."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"You toy with me at your peril, Isabel Evans," Parker threatened. "Hmm. That would sound better if I remembered your middle name."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm not telling you, just to reduce the threat level," she teased. "Honestly though? It's just nice. Let's just leave it at that. Okay?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Okaaaay," Parker muttered. "But I want details as soon as details appear. Seriously." Because it would be *good* for Isabel to have someone. It had been months and months, and Parker still worried, sometimes, about what Kivar did to the inside of her head. "I wish I could threaten to withhold matching details from you, but we barely got to L.A. before I was kidnapped by Zero and Dave and random ride-alongs. I don't know whether to hope for a hottie in the desert or fear the whole concept."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"You'll get details when I'm sure there won't be jinxing. As for hotties," Isabel said thoughtfully, "You'll be in the desert. So more then likely they're all going to be shirtless. Take pictures for me?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Oo." Parker snuck a peek at Hector, buying more bottled water in the latest convenience store. "Okay. This is looking up. And of course! Although you'll have to wait a while-- apparently, there's no phones out there." She shuddered. "I should be back the day after Labor Day, though. You'll probably get a full upload then."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

No phones. But Parker thought there was a spa. Obviously her brain wasn't making the connection just to protect her. "I will be here. Waiting anxiously for details." With bail money should it be needed.